A Way to a Future"

IIWORKING -A WAY TO A FUTURE" CORRECTIVE SERVICES INDUSTRIES 365. 6509 944 CON (S .:56S-· GS0'77'~ CON B 1 N.S.w. DEPT. OF CORRECfiVfSERVICES i LIBRARY . "W 0 R KIN G - A WAY T 0 A F U T U R E" PAPERS PRESENTED AT THE CONFERENCE OF SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS OF AUSTRALIAN AND REGIONAL PRISON INDUSTRIES HELD AT THE RECEPTION HALL SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE, 14TH APRIL, 1986 .' -\\\\\~~~\~\~\~~~\~\~\~\\~~\\\\\~~\~ 39339 04007517 ____ .J The Honourable John Akister, M.P., Minister, N.S.W. Department of Corrective Services j I 1 I INTRODUCTION I Industry generally is undergoing constant change caused by new technology, the altered requirements of society and the. emergence of new nations as suppliers to the Australian market. These changes have also influenced the level of unemployed labour, emphasising the competition for jobs requiring lower skills. In combination with the greater sophistication in the attitude of the pUblic to conditions of imprisonment, best utilisation of the working hours of inmates has become increasingly import ant to society, both to impart ~kills suitable to improve the likelihood of employment on release and offset somewhat the costs of con tainment and rehabilitation. Whatever problems occur in Industry and Agri culture, there are additional problems in using inmates, most of whom are in training, to achieve the quality, service and cost levels needed to survive in 1986. Conferences and seminars are modern management tools used to discuss problems and share solu tions: it is hoped that the Conference at which these papers were presented, and the subsequent inspections of New South Wales Prison Industry, will have the effect of opening further the lines of interstate co-operation, and will be repeated. This book is supplied with the compliments of the N.S.W. Department of Corrective Services, in the assurance that the wisdom and experience contained in the various papers can be of benefit to all officers concerned with Prison Industries. Ron Schliemann Conference Convenor CON TEN T S "THE CONFLICT BETWEEN PUBLIC PERCEPTION 1 AND PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITIES" The Honourable John Akister, M.P. "THE OPERATING PERFORMANCE OF PRISON 9 INDUSTRIES" Mr. Clyde Mitchell "WHAT MAKES A GOOD PRISON?" 23 Mr. David Biles "WORK AS PART OF THE PROCESS OF 33 REHABILITATION" Professor Syd Lovibond "MEETING THE CHALLENGE OF THE LATE EIGHTIES" 47 Dr. Chris Fay "PRISON INDUSTRY: THE KEY POLICY DILEMMAS" 57 Dr. John Braithwaite Officers Attending Conference 67 Mr.. Clyde Mitchell Dr. John Braithwaite Mr. David Biles Professor Syd Lovibond Dr. Chris Fay 1 "THE CONFLICT BETWEEN PUBLIC PE~CEPTION AND PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITIES" The Honourable John Akister, M.P., Minister, N.S.W. Department of Corrective Services. John Akister was born in Lancashire in 1937. Commencing his working life as an Apprentice Electrical Fitter, he resumed work as an Electrical Draughtsman after completing his National Service in Europe and the Far East. On migrating to Australia in 1963 and settling in Sydney, he worked as a Draughtsman. He sub sequently moved to Cooma and was elected as the Member for Monaro in May 1976. A family man with two children, he has been a member of several Select Committees, and was appointed as Minister in March 1984. He also represents the Minister of Agriculture in the Legislative Assembly. A very practical man with several years experience as Minister of this Department, this paper clearly • illustrates the conflict as seen from the key authoritative position. 2 • Mr. Dalton, mambers of the N.S.W. Corrective Services Commission, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. it is indeed a pleasure to officially open this regional conference on prison industries. Prison industries receive very little public and media attention, yet they make significant contribution to rehabilitation and the effective running of our jails. It is certainly one of my priorities to expand their l scope, and particularly to increase their links with education and training, the other two elements of any l' effective offender rehabilitation programme. The fact that prison industries are somewhat invisible reflects the general problem that all activities which occur inside penal institutions are obscured from view behind· a security screen. But more importantly, it demonstrates a bias within some sections of the media towards reporting only the bad news on prisons. Why should this be? Well, obviously strife and crime are always news, and calm and qUiet efforts at rehabilita tion are traditionally less news worthy. But there is also a tendency by some, but not all, politicians, media and members of the public to use offenders as universal scape goats. To fit this role they must be portrayed in purely black terms. Such a simplistic view of crime and punishment and of good and evil does not allow for the concept of rehabilitation. It does not even allow fo~ the humanity of offenders to be recognised. This problem of perception versus reality in prison industries exemplifies my general theme of the conflict between public perception and public responsibilities. We find ourselves faced with a dilemma. For the safety and welfare of the community we must implement reforms to achieve a humane correctional system that will be conducivA to rehabilitation and which will protect the community. On the other hand the public, if public opinion polls are to be believed, would appear to favour a far more punitive and harsh system and there fore conducive to producing more violent prisoners. Our obligation to protect the community obliges us to move in one direction, and yet our equal obligation to give effect to the will of the people draws us in the other direction. The first thing that must be said about this conundrum is that it must be resolved by government, because it is a political problem. 4 What then is the public perception of jails that has led the people to such an apparently unsympathetic view of reform? I use the term "jails" advisedly because although there are far more offenders undertaking other forms of punishment, such offenders are almost invisible (especially to the media). It would seem that the public imagines a jail system which is wholly populated by desperate criminals who are invariably serving long sentences under what ar~ (or should be) draconian conditions. There is little awareness of ' the reality which is that most offenders (85%) are serving short prison sentences for relatively minor offences which have not involved violence. There is even less apprecia tion of the philosophy of rehabilitation upon which the post-Nagle prison system is based. Perhaps most signi ficant is the apparent failure to recognise Justice Nagle's principle that prisoners go to jail as punish ment, not for punishment, and that harsh conditions serve only to reinforce anti-social behaviour and attitudes. When the popular press calls for harsher and longer prison sentences - as it invariably does after any serious case of recividism - it strikes a responsive chord in the popular mind. I believe that ·these attitudes are based on ignorance, an ignorance encouraged and assiduously cultivated by some elements of the media, but for which government is ultimately responsible. By backing reform but not making the effort to explain 'it and to sell it we have tended to undermine our own policies. This fact may provide us with a clue as to how the dilemma might be resolved. Ignorance about corrective services is traditional. Jails are an unpleasant aspect of our society which has been kept out of sight and out of mind. But this has been to the detriment of the community. Before 1976, during the long years of almost complete public ignorance, some terrible things went on in our jails. The Nagle Commission lifted the lid off this system and provided the government with a blueprint for the replace ment of the purely containment and coercive system with a system which provides both security and opportunity for rehabilitation. Nagle correctly argued that the prison system should be about correction rather than mere vengeance, and he argued this on very practical grounds. He demonstrated that the coercive model produces more crime, more alienation and reinforces socially destructive elements. Nagle pointed out that most prisoners are released into the community sooner or later. That is why the society cannot afford the jails to be unlversities of crime and institutes of violence. We on the outside have to live with the results. 5 The old system. was defective instead of curing criminals, it made them worse. It turned pickpockets into bank robbers, muggers into murderers, and generally created a harsher more violent type of offender. The jail's population is not a random cross section of society, but is composed almost entirely of young males from the lowest socio-economic strata: people who are unskilled, unemployed, poorly educated and likely to have had a disrupted or inadequate family environment. Many have previously been committed to juvenile institu tions. These are people who have gained less than a fair share of what our society offers. This does not absolve them of personal responsibility for their criminal actions. But it does present compelling evidence for abandoning the simplistic individual model of crime and punishment. It is clear that what is required is a system that gives offenders an opportunity to increase their skills, education and self esteem; the things they need to succeed in the social mainstream. We must offer them these opportunities, otherwise they will continue to find their identity and feelings of self worth in the subculture of crime. Some journalists and editors would appear tb hold the view that Corrective Services is nothing more or less than wall to wall sensation, and that jails are the ultimate, reliable source of bad news.

Load more